The basic thrust of pitching your business to investors — or to co-founders, or indeed, to yourself — is to portray confidence about what you are going to do with the investor’s money. Investors invest in people. They seek strong, capable navigators of their financial future. You must demonstrate the skill and will to succeed,…
Category Archives: Entrepreneurship
Elements of an Executive Summary for Startups
An executive summary is often the first document potential investors see about your company. Think of it as a 1-3 page advertisement for your company to investors. Its purpose is to cause the investor to want to learn more about the opportunity. It should contain no trade secrets or confidential information. Here’s what I look…
Designing for the Future
Remarks delivered to open the Internet Technology Summit, Orlando, 22 June 2010. It is human nature to root for the underdog. Make no mistake, we loves us some winners, but we adores us some winners when they come from behind. May 26, 2010, was a momentous day for come-from-behind winners. For example, on the Fox…
Audit your IP Portfolio or Face Certain Doom
You are living every entrepreneur’s dream. After years of sleepless nights sweating for equity, you are preparing to cash out. Your startup company has become an acquisition target. After several rounds of negotiations, a strategic partner offers to buy your company for a whopping $100 million. You’ll finally get a good night’s sleep. You are…
Attorney 2.0 on Marketing 2.0
I’ve been asked to speak on social media marketing more often than any other subject lately, so I though it would be timely to blog (with permission) this excerpt from Bernie Borges’s awesome book, Marketing 2.0, available at Amazon. See if you can tell which of my own rules I almost but not quite constantly…
A New Theory of Business: From Idea to Happy
For 15 years or so I have been pursuing an agenda dubbed “ideas2money,” a slightly tongue-in-cheek abstraction of the premise that all business is about monetizing good ideas, in turn premised on the relatively venerable notion that the sole role of any business is maximizing profit and, thus, shareholder wealth. After observing progressive companies such…
Why register a trademark?
Why should I spend all this money on registering a trademark? Isn’t my domain name enough? Short answer: because it’s cool to own stuff. Long answer: Your brand tells your customers where your products (and services) come from. In the minds of your customers, your brand is you. Artful brand selection fortifies market recognition. Pick…
Why Use Website Terms of Service Agreements?
Why put a Terms of Service agreement on your website? Look, everything’s got a little legal legend to it, ok? You see them everywhere. The masthead of a magazine, the fine print on an advertisement, even the coffee cups at McDonald’s. Everything just seems to go better when emblazoned with a bunch of juicy legal…
Startup Legal FAQ 12 – Why Own IP?
What’s the big deal with owning all this IP? Isn’t there more to my company than just my IP? Yes, there is a bit more to your company than its Intellectual Property. But, on average, not much more. So it’s important to keep good records about the IP you have. Here is one of a…
Startup Legal FAQ 10. – Why Use Independent Contractor Agreements?
I suppose I need an independent contractor agreement too? Yes. Yes you do. Ideally, you need one that uses the magic words “works made for hire.” Ownership of intellectual property is counterintuitive. Mere payment for deliverables does not necessarily secure clean title from independent contractors. Under US copyright law, in order to be deemed to…
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